Holy Knights can take two different types of favored undead enemies. One at level 4 and one at level 5. The main types of undead available for study as adversaries are: Ghouls, Mummies, Skeletons, Spectres, Vampires, and Zombies.

In this at-home study series, we’re going to cover reach one of these types of undead in detail. We’ll discuss the nature of these creatures, what they’re after, and some tactics you can use if you ever run into them in the wild.

First up is the Ghoul. Ghouls are broadly considered undead by scholars, but there are those among us who debate whether that’s true or not. That said, here’s what we know.

They feast on the dead.

They tend to gather on the fringes of civilization anywhere they can find a steady supply of fresh corpses.

They tend to claw and bite their enemies, generally paralyzing them in the process.

Second, let’s talk about that paralysis for a minute. There is only one race among us unaffected by whatever agent they secrete and infect their victims with: Elves. So if you’re an elf, bully for you. Elves are not particularly religious, so we have only seen a few of their number among our ranks as Holy Knights.

If you are paralyzed, you can do a Save vs. Paralysis roll each round until you are released from its effects or die in the process. There are some reports of ghouls torturing their paralyzed victims in an attempt to scare them to death, but only in a few isolated cases. Usually they will simply paralyze their victims and slash them to death shortly thereafter so they can enjoy a fresh kill.

Third, ghouls don’t usually travel alone. If you find one, you’re likely to find a few more lurking in the dark. The availability of food is a limiting factor usually, but tread carefully if you should find yourself at the edge of a war zone or an area affected by disease. Mass graves attract ghouls like an all-they-can-eat buffet and they can sometimes be caught in a feeding frenzy. When the food is gone however, they usually disperse to find more.

Fourth, let’s cover how to kill these things. Ghouls are essentially humanoids feeding on dead humanoids and only pseudo-undead. Holy water only affects the oldest ones to a significant degree and usually just serves to annoy the younger ones. Fire affects them normally. They are not affected by poison, considering the number of toxins that already exist in their bodies. So you are left with normal physical damage and some magical damage if you have arcane or divine reinforcement. We definitely recommend you stay away from close combat if you can avoid it. Ranged physical and fire attacks are the way to go.

Lastly we’ll talk about known associates. Honestly we don’t know of anyone. Even among the monstrous races, ghouls are considered uncouth and uncivilized. Consuming humanoid flesh is forbidden by most if not all major religions we know about, so ghouls are left without friends in the wild. That’s good for us and bad for them.

Hopefully you feel a bit more prepared to fight ghouls should you encounter them in your travels. Good luck.